Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Cin and Omar are leaving today. They sure were nice to have around. Very fun and easy. (Ahem).

Babe and I don't eat out, really. Maybe once a month or so. Unless we are with other peeps. In the last two weeks, I've eaten at: The Smoke Joint, Zaytoon's, Black Betty, Graziella's, Ici, Agua Santa, Maggie Brown's, Le Barricou, and ... ... ... ... can that be it?

Monday, March 30, 2009

Went to the Trash Bar in Williamsburg and paid $7.00 to see two bands. One sucked, the other was great!

Checked out at least three bars in Williamsburg afterward, one was Clem's.

Saw one guest off, welcomed two new ones.

In the span of the three hours Babe and I were without guests, we: took a nap, cleaned the entire house (swept, cleaned kitchen, cleaned bathroom, dusted), did two loads of laundry, went to associated to get some groceries, dropped off the laundry, picked up the laundry, went to Walgreen's for toothpaste and toilet paper.

Went to dinner at The Smoke Joint. They were having a tremendous dine in Brooklyn special, two big meals for $23 dollars.

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

3 1/2 to 4 cups chicken broth (I didn't have any broth, so just made some using the directions below)

2 teaspoons unsalted butter

1 teaspoon extra-virgin olive oil

2 medium shallots, finely chopped

1 cup Arborio rice

1/3 cup dry white wine

1 1/2 tablespoons reduced-fat sour cream

1/2 cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese

Freshly ground black pepper

Pinch of kosher salt

1.

Break the tough ends off the asparagus (when you bend a stalk with both hands, it will break at the point where it is becoming tough and dry). Put the stems in a medium saucepan. Add the broth and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce to a simmer and cook for 15 minutes; keep at a simmer.

2.

Meanwhile, slice the asparagus stalks on a diagonal into 1/2-inch pieces. Slice the sugar snaps or snow peas, if using, on a diagonal into 1/4-inch slices. Set aside.

3.

In a large heavy saucepan, melt the butter with the olive oil over low heat. Add the shallots, cover, and cook, stirring occasionally, until translucent, about 4 minutes. Uncover, increase the heat to moderate, and cook, stirring, until the shallots are golden. Add the rice and cook, stirring constantly, until the grains look chalky with a white dot in the center of each, about 5 minutes. (Do not allow the rice to brown.)

4.

Add the wine and simmer, stirring, until it has been absorbed by the rice. With a skimmer, scoop the vegetable trimmings out of the simmering broth and discard. Stir in 1/2 cup of the broth and simmer, stirring frequently, until almost all the liquid is absorbed, 3 minutes. Add another 1/2 cup broth and simmer, stirring, until it has been absorbed. Stir the asparagus into the rice and add 1 cup of the broth. Cook, stirring frequently, for 3 minutes. Stir in the peas. Continue adding the broth in the same fashion, 1/2 cup at a time, until the rice grains are tender but still firm in the center and the risotto is creamy but not soupy. Remove from the heat.

5.

Stir in the sour cream, about half of the Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, and pepper to taste.

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

I dig this feature of NY Magazine, too. It's their "deliberately simplified guide to who falls where on their taste hierarchies." Everything gets judged on two different axis - despicable to brilliant, highbrow to lowbrow. The one pictured here is last week. (This week's is not yet available.)

Russian LOLcats: Cat pictures with captions like "It is imperative we reach the acid baths." (Lowbrow, brilliant). (I can't link to it, because even a cursory web search reveals hundreds of cat pictures and you guys all know how afraid/phobic I am of cats.)

That the pope said condom distribution quickens the spread of AIDS. (Despicable)

There is a frozen food item called Obama Fingers, which are German chicken fingers named after Obama.

Thursday, March 19, 2009

I just got back from career day in the Bronx. I talked to a group of 7th graders about how I got where I am in my life. Those kids were so cute.

What I realized as I was talking was that a lot of the great things that have happened to me in my life can be traced back to the fact that I did Speech and Debate in high school. Every other weekend I was out at some high school or another, or college even, competing with other high school speech and debate kids.

This activity kept me out of trouble, but also showed me a lot of the world outside of Oxnard, California. I was able to go to a speech tournament at UC Berkeley and from that moment forward decided to go to Berkeley for college.

I asked all the kids if they'd seen The Great Debaters and all the hands shot up in the air. That was my lead in. They were so little. When you're in the 7th grade you feel sort of grown up, but really? You're 11.

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

NY Magazine is like People or US for NYers. It's such a rag - the journalism isn't great but you can't help but read it. After all, it's been around a long time. Anyway, that's my excuse. This week, they feature Michelle Obama - "From terrorist fist-bumper to American icon in eight months flat."

As is their way, they present a collection of couple-paragraph long musings on a subject and cobble them together to present an overall view. Either way, it's great and I'm loving it. Especially this picture. Gives me goose bumps.

Thursday, March 12, 2009

My Ma was flipping through a magazine and ran across this poem, about her hometown and our peeps. How random is that? (Our peeps being the Menominees, obviously!)

Keshena Falls

Every spring the tumbling waterscascade over the fallslanding on rocks millions of years old.Here the drumming begins,icy spring waters calling the sturgeons home.

That`s why the Menominee,when treaties forced a choice of land,chose the falls at Keshena.For here, after hard, depleting winters,new life was givenas the fish came home to spawn.Here hunger endedand hope was restored.

If one`s heart is quiet,there is a drumming in the stillnessand an eternal flame of hopein the Menominee Nation`s heart.

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Big day, kids. Big day. That's been happening a lot lately. That report I work on every year is coming out today and I can't wait to get it the heck out of my life!! Haha.***I truly think things will go back to a little more normal after this. Will they? I don't know.***Already Wednesday - time to start thinking about the weekend. Any big plans? You should make some. Look at me, bossing you around.***Last night I got home from work at 10:30 so I had a can of green beans for dinner. YUM.***

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

You know I can't resist. I feel very BFF to reference myself in my blog. Circular reference? I've been working too much in excel. As if that could ever be possible. My brain is addled - I obviously blame the time change. I'm freakin tired - time change.

I was at a friend's place on Sunday for brunch and this guy called daylight savings time jet lag for poor people.

Monday, March 09, 2009

Went to a show called Dancemopolitan at Joe's Pub, which was sort of like watching America's Best Dance Crew live. It had seven separate choreographers each with a dance set to a different Broadway musical. Tremendous!

Saw DJ Bobby Fortunes at 87 Ludlow.

Played three on three football in Fort Greene park, enjoying the 70 degree weather.

Took the 2/3 up to Harlem and back again on Sunday for a brunch and an impromptu hang out with my peeps.

Stayed up til the wee hours reading the unreleased fifth book from the Twilight Series. It doesn't count as cheating since it's a new book.

Thursday, March 05, 2009

I sometimes hate stir fry and I think it's because I always make it badly. Last night I put some effort into my stir fry and the results were delicious. Here! Try for your self:

Delicious Stir Fry

1 lb chicken in little pieces (organic)

1 orange bell pepper

1 7 ounce can of water chestnuts

half of an onion

carrots

chili-garlic sauce

hoisin sauce

Toss your chicky pieces with some chili garlic sauce (about 3 tablespoons), let it chill. Heat up your big frying pan or wok (I don't have a wok). If you have sesame oil, use that, if not EVOO is fine. Throw in the onion and the carrot. Let it heat up for about 2 minutes, scooch it to the side, toss in your chili garlic chicken pieces. Let them cook up, about 4 minutes or so. Toss in the bell pepper and the water chestnuts, both chopped up. Let them cook about a minute or two. Toss the whole thing with 3 tablespoons of the hoisin sauce. Eat it with brown rice and you are stolked.

Wednesday, March 04, 2009

Times are lean without Twilight and having given up beer and candy for Lent. Someone brought a bag of Heath bars and they are sitting outside of my desk. Might as well put a nice frosty mug of Sixpoint Sweet Action out there, too.***The Great Recession, huh? It really is as bad as it sounds. I am so thankful I have a job and one that keeps me so busy that sometimes I can't believe there are so few hours in the day. Look at this map, you guys. It's incredible.***I swear I am going to try to leave at 5:30 today - I'm totally out of pomade for my hair and moisturizer for my face and dammit if I'm not going to leave at a reasonable hour to get such supplies. And I have to water my friend's plants.***

Tuesday, March 03, 2009

Dude, I broke up with Twilight (the series - all four of them!) on Sunday. It's over. We had a good run, but it had to end sometime. Since about November, I've been borderline obsessed. Borderline? Anyways, I've read lots of different books, too, and even watched some TV and movies, but pretty much I've been consistently re-reading Twilight since the first time I read it back in November.

I've tried to figure out why it appeals to be so much, when, at the same time, I totally make fun of it and wouldn't necessarily recommend it to anyone to read. I'm just not sure. I think it makes me think about when I was a teenager, which isn't actually my favorite time of life to think about, but there were some parts of it that were tremendous. Like the butterflies and the crushes and that kind of thing.

And then there's the whole adolescent angst genre which is pretty much my favorite genre (Hellooo Buffy).

The books are heavily flawed - the writing sometimes flat out stinks. (Ask Stephen King, he'll tell you.) They are too long, they are unrealistic, they are ridiculous. But I loved them (particularly the first and the third, by the way) and now we've split up. It's over.

Monday, March 02, 2009

Had two glasses of wine with friends at this cute bar: Elettaria. They just started a happy hour and it's a beautiful bar with fun, fancy drinks. Check it out.

Went out on Saturday night to two places, one I'd been before, and one I never had. Jakewalk and Abilene. Jakewalk is named for some kind of affliction that people used to suffer from during prohibition - due to drinking basically moonshine. The bar is meant to celebrate the end of prohibition. Despite the lame name, the place is really nice. Abilene is an old favorite - I love that bar.